Peter Hans Nelde
Peter Hans Nelde (1942 - 2007-08-31) was a German and Belgian sociolinguist.
He was Professor of Germanic Linguistics and Director of the Research Center on Multilingualism at the Catholic University of Brussels (Belgium). He established contact linguistics as an integral part of linguistics, supported by annual international symposia on "Contact + Confli(c)t" between linguistic minorities and majorities, and through the series Plurilingua, which he maintained as editor-in-chief. Peter Nelde had taught at the universities of Buffalo, Gent, Leipzig, Nijmegen and Vienna and directed an international research project on linguistic diversity (LINEE) sponsored by the European Union. His long list of publications includes the International Handbook on Contact Linguistics (1996/97) and the EUROMOSAIC reports on the linguistic minorities of Europe (1996, 2004). Peter Nelde had occupied the Leibniz Chair at the University of Leipzig and was a Knight of the Royal Belgian Court.
Original source
Originally based on Wolfgang Wölck's obituary on the LINGUIST List.
